


maybe i'll crash into you

by felicitysmoakapologist



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Parent Trap-esque, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Abuse, i hope you like fluff and angst it's all i know how to do
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:15:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27091882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felicitysmoakapologist/pseuds/felicitysmoakapologist
Summary: Pike is an ER doctor who's just gotten custody of her teenage cousin after an incident that put her in the hospital. Scanlan is fresh out of rehab, trying to repair his relationship with his daughter and moves into their apartment building. The girls become fast friends & hatch a plot to change all of their lives for the better.
Relationships: Grog Strongjaw & Pike Trickfoot, JB Trickfoot & Kaylie Shorthalt, JB Trickfoot & Pike Trickfoot, Kaylie & Scanlan Shorthalt, Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia, Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot, Shaun Gilmore/Vax'ildan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	maybe i'll crash into you

_Eighteen Months Ago ..._

It’s hour thirty of Pike’s twenty-four hour shift, and visions of her bed are swimming in the back of her mind as she finishes her patient’s charts at the nurse’s station, way overdue after a crowded night in the emergency room. She’s had three cups of coffee in the last two hours and done at least two-hundred jumping jacks in the last thirty. She’d have been gone two hours ago if she hadn’t jumped on the last trauma that had come in, but Pike’s never been one to leave when the going gets tough. Her friends never fail to remind her of that fact, either. Emon General Hospital isn’t huge, though. It’s not even the most funded hospital in their city. How can she turn away a patient when every other doctor is just as exhausted as she is? Pike rubs her eyes, the light makeup she’d applied the day before smeared on a pillow in the doctor’s lounge somewhere where she’d gotten a few blissful minutes of sleep somewhere in between patients. She signs her last chart, hopping off her stool, and sighing in relief before hell breaks loose. Pike doesn't hesitate to set her tablet down and grab a pair of gloves when the first ambulance arrives. She meets the ambulance outside of the ER doors. 

“Hey, Pickle. Glad you’re here.” Vax quips, an urgency in his tone as his partner opens the doors to reveal him with the patient in the back. “I’ve got a male, thirty-five, unknown drug overdose. I’ve given him one auto-injection of narcan about five minutes ago, one was given before we arrived on scene, and he still hasn’t woken up.” Together they pull the gurney out of the ambulance and Pike has her stethoscope to the man’s chest, listening to Vax rattle off his stats as she listens to his heartbeat. Unconscious. Not breathing. Racing heart. Fuck. 

“Alright, let’s set him up in bay three. Get him attached to the monitor and EKG, start a central line and I’ll give him another shot of narcan through that.”

“Shouldn’t you be home?” Vax asks, as they rush the gurney to the bay, still pumping the resuscitator evenly over their patient’s mouth and nose.

“Should is subjective, Stringbean, you know that.”

“You’re the backbone of this hospital, Pikey but one of these days you’re not going to want to spend every waking hour here.”

“Did you get his name?” She asks. Changing the subject, thank you very much, as the two nurses hook the unconscious man up to the heart monitor and start his IV. . 

“Yeah, they said his name is Scanlan.” 

“Alright, Scanlan. Come back to us.” She whispers, sending a silent prayer to Sarenrae, before she injects the third dose of narcan into his IV. She holds her breath, her fingers on his wrist checking his pulse even as the monitors do it for her. There’s a quiet few seconds, as quiet as the emergency room can be, before the man, Scanlan, gasps awake. His eyes shoot open, wild and confused as he looks around. Pike almost sighs in relief. She smiles softly at him, wrapping her stethoscope back around her neck as he lays back, breathing heavily. “Hi, Scanlan. I’m Pike. You gave us quite a scare. Can you tell us what you took?” She asks, and his eyes are still slightly glazed as he looks up at her and - smiles like he’s known her his entire life. She almost takes a step back. It’s a nice smile, far too charming for his own good she can already tell, but she’s pretty sure it’s just whatever drug that’s coursing through his veins is about to send his last meal all over her shoes. 

“Are you an angel?” He asks, and she hears Vax’s chuckle from somewhere behind her. 

“Not even close. I’m your doctor.” She chuckles. “You’re at the hospital. You overdosed. Do you remember that?” She asks, taking her pen light out and checking his pupils. 

“No. I just woke up in heaven to an angel.” Scanlan says shakily, trying to sit up, and her cheeks heat up against her will.

“Scanlan, I really need you to tell me what you took so I can treat you right.” 

“I can treat you right.” Vax’s ‘oof’ does not go unnoticed as Scanlan quips at her. Pike is more focused on the way Scanlan grasps the sheets at his side so hard his knuckles turn white, his breathing increasing rapidly.

“Scanlan? What’s going on?” She asks, stepping back towards the bed, eyes on the monitors as she listens to his lungs and heart through her stethoscope. 

“I don’t want to die.” He says and the fear in his eyes almost brings tears to hers as she leans him back gently, preparing for the worst. 

“I’m not going to let you die, Scanlan. I promise.” As soon as the words leave her lips she knows she’s made a mistake. She can feel Vax’s eyes boring holes in the back of her head. She doesn’t know why she did that. Doctors are not supposed to make that promise, not when they don’t know if they can keep. Not when she doesn’t know she can keep it. “Code Blue!” Pike shouts, rushing forward as the nurses wheel the crash cart over to them, before she starts pumping her hands forcefully into Scanlan’s chest. “He’s going into cardiac arrest, call the cardiologist and the ICU and let’s get him back before we take him upstairs. Vax come intubate we don't have time to wait for someone else.” She says and he’s right next to her in an instant as she continues the CPR on his chest. “Come on, Scanlan.” Pike whispers, another plead to Saranrae flitting through her mind, her breath coming harshly from exertion as the nurse hands her the paddles of the defibrillator. She waits for Vax to confirm he’s got Scanlan’s airway before she places the paddles to his chest and shouts, “Clear!” 

It takes three shocks to Scanlan’s chest before he stabilizes but doesn’t wake up. Even after she’s taken him up to the ICU and handed him over, she’s clutching the small symbol of Sarenrae she keeps around her neck at all times. She shouldn’t have promised him, the look in his eyes too much to bear in the moment. She already knows she’s going to drive herself crazy thinking about him if she doesn’t ask for an update next shift. She’s on her way to her locker, hoping to sneak out before she gets stuck for another twelve hours when Dr. Ashari jogs up to her. Worry is clear in her bright green eyes, which is nothing new but still sends an uneasy feeling to her stomach. 

“Pike! Here you are!”

“Hey, Kiki. I was just leaving, what’s up?”

“I know you’re tired, you’ve been here so long but I need you to come with me back to the ER. They said you’d gone with an overdose upstairs and I checked there but you weren’t there so -” 

“Keyleth, is something wrong?” 

“Your brother is here.”

“Grog? Grog’s here? Is he ok?” Pike stops in her tracks as her heart begins to race. Something’s wrong. Grog never comes here unless he’s hurt and even then it’s a fight to even get him in an ambulance. She knows. She’s had to do it multiple times. Unless Wilhand is hurt. She glances at her watch, neither of them should even be awake. 

“Uh, yeah, no, I mean yeah we’ve been looking for you.” Keyleth says, her hand on the small of her back as she steers her back towards the ER.

“Is it my grandpa?” Her small fingers back at her neck, back at her symbol and she hates the way her voice cracks.

“No. No, they’re both fine. It’s -” Grog sees them before she can finish, and she’s relieved to see he’s not in a bed. There’s a black eye but she’d given it to him a couple of nights ago by accident. That took care of him. She cycles through the list of things that could be wrong, of people that could be hurt. Vax is on shift. Vex is home with Percy. Keyleth is standing next to her. Wilhand is fine.

“Grog, what are you doing here?” 

“Pike ...Wilhand, he called me because ….” Grog starts , and for the first time in a long time she sees the uneasiness in her brother’s eyes as they dart nervously between Keyleth and herself. She looks between them, eyes narrowing before they settle back on her brother. 

“Grog … tell me what’s wrong.” Her voice is stern and she watches as his eyes widen. It’s a wonder she’s ever been able to intimidate her adopted brother, her five-foot frame forcing her to bend her head all the way back just to look into his eyes.

“It’s JB. She’s been hurt. Real bad.” He says, ringing his hat in his large hands.

“What?” 

“Wilhand called me because tha cops called ‘im. Ogden’s been arrested and he couldn’t get hold’a you.” 

“I was - Where is she?” Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows that she should’ve noticed that it had been Keyleth that had found her. Their pediatric ER doctor. Her mind so focused on leaving, her mind still lingering on Scanlan. It’s been so long since she’s even heard from them, since they’d been in Emon. Just before she’d started medical school, she’d begged Wilhand to take JB in, the way he’d taken her in. The way he’d taken Grog in. But Odgen had made it clear that she’d never live with them beyond the few months she’d spent with them that summer, even when it was clear to all of them that he couldn’t possibly take care of her. JB had only been eight, and clung to Pike, screaming, as Odgen and Johann had pulled her away. She hadn’t been allowed back and none of them had seen them since. Keyleth pulls back the curtain and Pike’s breath is stolen from her lungs. At eight, JB had been small for her age. At fourteen, in this hospital bed and curled into herself, she somehow looks even smaller. Her left eye is swollen shut, and there’s already a cast on one of her wrists. Pike can only imagine what she can’t see. Tears spring to her eyes that she wills away when JB’s uninjured eye opens. 

“Pike?” JB’s voice is small, it’s always been small. Soft, like Pike’s, but she swears she would’ve missed it if she hadn’t seen her lips move. 

“Yeah. You remember me?” Pike moves slowly towards the side of the bed where what she can assume is Grog’s chair has been positioned. JB nods, wincing as she does. “Oh, Jabe. I’m so sorry.” She whispers and tears start to slip down JB’s cheeks. 

“I’m sorry, Pike.”

“Hey.” Pike shakes her head, closing her eyes briefly as she puts her hand in JB’s. “This is not your fault. None of this is your fault and I’m so sorry that it’s been so long. If I’d have known -” She doesn’t finish. She doesn’t have an excuse. She could’ve tried harder. She could’ve made sure Ogden had never been able to keep JB. She could’ve done anything in the last seven years to prevent … this. “I’m going to fix this. Okay? Grog is going to sit with you, they’re gonna move you to the ICU soon, I think. And I’ll be back as soon as I change. Alright? No one else is going to be allowed around you here except for Grog and I. Okay?” She says, and despite the anger that boils just under the surface she leans forward and presses a feather-light kiss to JB’s forehead. 

“You’re not going to let him take me again are you?” JB asks, tears still running down her cheeks. Pain and anger swirl in Pike’s gut and she’s legitimately worried she’s going to be sick. 

“Not ever.” The promise comes out more fiercely than she anticipates, but JB must sense that she’s not lying because she let’s her hand go. Pike watches as she closes her eyes, her shoulders relaxing for the first time in what Pike can only imagine is years.  
There are tears, resentful and hot, running down her cheeks when she walks back into the lobby of the ER to find Grog sitting in a chair that’s way too small for him. 

“What did Wilhand say happened?” She asks, wiping them away. 

“‘e said that Odgen and Johann were breaking into some house. They sent JB in first cuz she was small. The guy was home and … ‘e caught her, kicked tha shit outta her in the dark before ‘e saw she was little. He called the cops, they caught Ogden but not Johann or Astra.”

“Okay. Okay. Okay. Keyleth? What … specifically happened?” 

“Well, she’s got a fractured eye-socket, a broken wrist, some bruised ribs. No internal bleeding right now or anything but I want to keep her overnight just in case she’s got a concussion. I’ll be taking her upstairs in a few minutes. Do you want to go change and you can come with us?”

“No.” Pike says, her bottom lip between her teeth as she turns to Grog. “I have to go take care of something, Grog. So, I need you to stay here with JB and let me know what room she’s in when they take her up to the ICU.” Grog shakes his head, visibly frustrated at the task and she grabs his hand in hers and squeezes as tightly. “I can’t leave her here if I don’t know that you’re here with her. You’re the only person she knows. I’ll be okay. I’m a monstah, remember?”

“I know.”

“I can’t leave if I don’t know that you’re here. Protecting her.”

“I know.”

“No Trickfoot steps foot in her room. Right?”

“Right. What’re you gonna to do?” 

“I’m going to tell Uncle Odgen that he no longer has a fucking daughter.” Saranrae will forgive her language. She hopes she can forgive her rage.

**Author's Note:**

> *tik tok vc* well, this is what it looks like ! like cotton-eyed joe, i don't know where this came from but i actually kind of know where it's going ! I hope you all like it & I'd love to hear thoughts/comments/complaints! This chapter was very Pike focused but as we go on, it'll definitely be more back and forth. <3


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